Electric Blue Hermit crab molting...?

Shilpan

Member
Hey guys! Tank details: 11 month old, 400L with refugium, sump and skimmer. Nitrates 10ppm, Amm and Nitrites 0ppm. Alk-7dKh, Ca-410, Mg-1300. Soft corals and live rock, Inhabitants: CBShrimp, clowns, fairy wrasse, foxface, bangaii, sand sifter, firefish, and a newly added white cheek tang. Oh and 3 snails.

So I recently purchased a very large (?electric blue, the legs are discoloured slightly more purplish I think due to size) hermit crab. It's about 1/2 the size of my closed fist. I've had it for 6 days now. Day 1 it stayed still for a few hours then started walking around. Day 2 it moved around every few hours and climbed up and down my rockwork. Day 3 it found a nice perching spot on the rock. Day 4 it's still in that spot and its been staying in the spot since then. I can see it's feelers constantly twitching, antennae moving and yesterday I saw it's legs move a little. Is this normal hermit crab behaviour? How do I tell if it's molting and how long does molting last for usually?

Oh and he was drip acclimated over 45 minutes (the store tank and my tank had the same salinity, though the store has 5ppm nitrates, Alk-8dKh, Ca-380, Mg-1280 ). This is him in his bag.
IMG_1121.JPG

Thank you
 
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